A diary of our journey as new parents to Emma, adopted from Ukraine in July 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Appointments

We've been waiting since we got home for Emma to see an adoption specialist as well as the dentist. Turns out the appointments ended up one day after the other. For those of you who have been following the blog since Ukraine, you'll remember that Emma was terrified of doctors. Terry was the lucky one who had to take Emma to the immigration doctor in Ukraine. I'm the lucky one who gets to take care of the appointments now that we're home.

Yesterday was an appointment with the adoption specialist. She is the best in Canada (so they say) and she looks at Emma's physical, mental and emotional health. We were at the hospital for a total of three hours and I was ready for bed after that! The stress started by me driving to downtown Edmonton to a hospital I had never been at before and desperately trying to find a parking spot as I was running late. Well, I didn't find a spot, so I left the hospital and parked in a parking lot a few blocks away with about five minutes to spare. It was pouring rain, so Emma and I ran as fast as we could under my umbrella. We made it to our appointment with about ten seconds to spare. Phew!

We only sat in the waiting room for about one minute before Emma was called in. Emma has somehow made the connection that sitting in a waiting room and then someone calling her name means she's going to see the doctor..she was immediately apprehensive and I had to coax her in. No sooner than the lady asked Emma to take her coat and shoes off, Emma was in a heap on the floor wailing. All the lady wanted her to do was stand on the scale and measure her height. It wasn't going to happen. So I picked up Emma and the lady weighed Emma and I together and then just me and subtracted the difference to get Emma's weight. Height was not going to happen today. The lady then took us to a small room (Emma still wailing and me dragging her along) to wait for the doctor. Emma calmed down when she saw the toys and began to play. The doctor came in a few minutes later with a student of hers. The student came in handy as she was able to keep Emma busy while the doctor and I discussed everything there is to know about Emma. When it came time to examine Emma, the doctor let her sit on my lap and showed Emma everything she was going to do on a doll first. She let Emma play with her stethescope and a few other doctor tools and Emma seemed to relax. Emma reluctantly went through the examination without totally freaking out. She didn't cry, but she zoned out and started breathing really heavy like she was going to hyperventalate! Thankfully, everything looked good. The doctor said she would turf the chest x-ray for today because she didn't think Emma could handle it (thank God!) Instead, she gave me a requisition for a TB test, a pile of blood tests and more stool samples. Oh joy.

After that, it was off to see the occupational therapist who would assess Emma's motor skills. This was a lot more fun than the real doctor because Emma got to draw, play catch, hop on one foot and several other fun things. Her motor skills are off the charts (really good) according to the therapist, but her FINE motor skills are terrible. She thinks it's just due to a lack of exposure, so that's something we'll really need to work on.

After everything was done, I decided Emma needed some fun. It was lunch time, so I took her to McDonald's to eat and let her play in the Playplace for an hour. She had a great time and her doctor's appointment was quickly forgotten.

Today, we were off to the dentist. We were going to see a special pediatric dentist. When we got there, there was a waiting room full of toys, so Emma was very excited. She quickly picked out the toy school bus and airplane and paraded in front of me..."Look mama! School bus....airplane...school bus...airplane!" Things were going fine and dandy until a lady came out and called Emma's name...she knew what was coming. Once again, I'm dragging her in to a small room. The nurse could see how nervous Emma was, so she suggested having Emma sit on my lap in a chair rather than the big dentist chair. Soon the dentist came in. All he wanted to do was have Emma lay back so he could look in her mouth. All Emma wanted to do was scream and cry. That's OK, though. I was wondering how they were going to get her to open her mouth...screaming definitely does the trick! The dentist checked all Emma's teeth with a little mirror for about twenty seconds. No big deal, but Emma proceeded to wail as the dentist told me he didn't see any decay. He suggested we don't do anything with Emma (cleaning) until she's not so scared. So, it looks like we won't be cleaning Emma's teeth for another 10-20 years! LOL! I'm just very glad to have both of those appointments overwith!

On our way home, Emma excited pointed at the McDonald's and shouted "McDonald's..Eat!!!" She seems to think that every doctor's appointment warrants a trip to McDonald's afterwards. I reminded her that we had just eaten about half an hour earlier. This seemed to satisfy her!

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About Me

Welcome to our family blog. It is a diary of our journey to Ukraine to adopt our precious daughter, Emma, and our learning experiences since arriving home in August of 2008. Our diary begins on June 8, 2008, nine days before we left for Ukraine. If you'd like to start at the beginning, just scroll down to the archives and click on 2008. You will have to scroll down to the bottom of each page and click on "older posts" until you reach the first post. Enjoy!